Remember when the pandemic first started? So many of us in the solidarity economy movement were excited to explore and share alternatives to our current extractive and exploitative system. Mutual aid projects popped up all over the United States. We saw pictures of empty freeways under clear blue skies. We put a halt on evictions and foreclosures. Boxes of masks and other medical supplies were sent from Japan to China and then from China to Italy. And those masks came with poems!

Anything and everything felt possible and, at the Law Center, we tried our best to do our part. Check out our 2020 Annual Report to read about the highlights, including the launch of our Radical Real Estate Law School, the publication of our Mutual Aid Legal Toolkit, the successful SB 1079 campaign to prioritize communities over corporate landlords, and the legal support we provided to reparations-based land rematriation projects all over the country, dozens of mutual aid groups, and 80 Latinx cooperative entrepreneurs. 

We know there’s so much more work to do. In a 2020 survey, 7 in 10 Gen Z adults reported that in the prior two weeks, “they felt so tired that they sat around and did nothing.” They also reported feeling lonely (73%), miserable or unhappy (71%), and very restless (74%). Those responses are to be expected from young adults sheltering in place while dealing with our climate crisis, land grabs, u

nemployment rates, bloated police budgets, homelessness, etc.

With so many issues to tackle, we’ve braced ourselves for 2021 by recruiting seven new staff members, two new board members, and a whole bunch of volunteers, fellows, and partners this year! 

Welcome Alejandra!

Welcome our newest Staff Attorney Alejandra Cruz! Alejandra will focus on our Food & Farm and Community Renewable Energy Programs.

She is passionate about racial justice, immigrant rights, and health equity, and comes to the Law Center motivated to work towards achieving economic justice for the communities that are close to her heart. She loves to dance, sing karaoke in her dad's living room, and try new recipes--mushroom pozole verde, for example.